Tag: Cora’s TBR Challenge

TBR Challenge

Cora’s TBR Check In

Cora Lee

Happy Thanksgiving, fellow readers! We’ve got one month to go in our TBR Challenge–are you going to reach your goal?

I’ve been reading my little eyeballs off, but they’ve all been soon-to-be-released books (the editing business is, shall we say, booming). I’ve also been working on a short story that I planned on releasing in December (I’ll post more when I have an exact date) as a follow up to Save the Last Dance for Me, and that has consumed whatever free time I’ve had so my TBR bins have been sorely neglected. I did pledge to read 18 books that I’ve owned for a year or more, and so far I’ve read 15. That leaves me a month to get 3 books read from my TBR bins–certainly attainable. We’ll see what the next few weeks bring 😀

Job_Lot_Cheap_by_William_Michael_Harnett,_1878_(cropped)

Books, TBR Challenge

TBR Challenge Check-In

Cora Lee

Welcome to autumn in the Northern Hemisphere! And happy spring in the Southern Hemisphere! Three months left to go in our TBR Challenge, fellow readers–have you been making progress toward your goal?

I managed to read a single book this month (Tessa Dare’s A Lady By Midnight), but have otherwise been distracted by other commitments. The day job is going well, even if it’s a little dull at times (though I’ll take dull any day of the week over the stress and unhappiness I left behind). The editing business is picking up, too, enough that I haven’t had much time for my own writing (though I hope to remedy that in October, before Lady Cecilia becomes well and truly angry with me for putting her off). But lots of business is a good problem to have 🙂

Photo Credit: Herzi Pinki
Photo Credit: Herzi Pinki
TBR Challenge

TBR Challenge Check-In

Cora Lee

August is nearly gone and the end of summer is fast approaching in the Northern Hemisphere (though you’d never know it based on the weather in some places). Has the season been kind to your TBR pile?

Summer (and August in particular) turned out to be busier for me than I anticipated. I had a new house to unpack, several editing projects to tackle, and more responsibility at the day job. I haven’t actually read a book the whole month!

But during quite moments at the office I have been continuing to listen to Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon. I read the book (and indeed, the whole series save #8) in paper form several years ago, so it isn’t a new story for me. But listening is a completely different experience for me than reading, and Davina Porter is a wonderful narrator. She manages the Gaelic and French phrases so much better than my eyes can, plus she handles the various accents as though she used them every day (though I will admit her American accent is a tad off). I can only manage to sound Canadian or slightly Celtic when I’m tired 😉

audio-book

Books, TBR Challenge

TBR Challenge Check-In

Cora Lee

Greetings fellow readers! I missed last month’s check-in getting ready for the Historical Novel Society’s conference in Denver (see the pictures–including shots of me in my new Regency ball gown during the costume pageant–here). And I nearly missed this month’s check-in because of a protracted argument with my internet service provider (I moved to a new town, my service didn’t).

But here we are, with five months left to go in this year’s Challenge. How’s your TBR pile doing? My print and kindle books have been languishing on my shelves and, since the move, in boxes, waiting for me to pay attention to them again. My day job has some slow times ahead, so perhaps I’ll be able to do some reading then. But I have to balance reading with writing time, and I have a story just itching to be told!

I did find regular blocks of time at that same day job to listen to the monstrous pile of audio books I’ve accumulated. Some people listen to music at their desks, but I’ve found that audio books are much more interesting to me (plus, I like to sing along with songs I know, and I really shouldn’t do that at work 😉 ). I’ve managed to (finally!) finish Outlander in audio form, and have begun Dragonfly in Amber. On deck waits Hamlet, Prince of Denmark read by the wonderful Richard Armitage, and the first two How to Train Your Dragon novels read by David Tennant, among a host of others. My ears are in for a treat!

Dragonfly audio

Books, TBR Challenge

Cora’s TBR Challenge Check-In

Cora Lee

May is coming to an end reading friends–has your TBR pile grown any smaller?

Mine has, incrementally. I’ve been writing a lot again this month, so reading time has been hard to find. But I typed the last words this week, so I’m planning a reading binge to recharge my batteries. At the moment, I’m about halfway through Georgette Heyer’s last novel–a historical fiction piece (rather than one of her famous Regency romances) that centers around John, Duke of Bedford, brother of Henry V. It’s an incomplete manuscript, as Ms. Heyer passed away before finishing it (in fact, it stops mid-sentence), so I’m preparing myself for the lack of closure in this novel. But I’ve enjoyed the first half immensely, and I’m looking forward to the rest!

My Lord John cover

Books, TBR Challenge

Cora’s TBR Challenge Check-In

Cora Lee

We’re a quarter of the way through the year, fellow readers. Are you at least 25% of the way through your TBR Challenge?

I am, though April has been another slow reading month for me. Happily, it’s not because of migraine troubles. I’ve actually been writing a lot more lately, and I don’t tend to read as much when I’m on a writing binge. If I do read during a writing stint, I try to stay away from the time period I’m writing so I don’t inadvertently borrow from someone else’s work (research is one thing, but plagiarism is quite another!). Right now I’m working my way through Edith Pargeter’s The Bloody Field, and enjoying it enormously. When I’m finished, I think I might go back and do Shakespeare’s Henry V again. 🙂

The Bloody FieldIt’s not too late to join in the reading fun! Check out this year’s TBR Challenge page for more details.

Books, TBR Challenge

Cora’s TBR Challenge Check-In

Cora Lee

March is coming to an end, my fellow readers–how is your TBR Challenge progressing?

This has been a tough month for me. I left my teaching career behind and have gone Emma 2009into business for myself as a copy editor. Leaving the classroom was an immense relief, and I don’t regret it for a minute. But self-employment is scary, especially since I’m just beginning to build a client base. March has also been a month of changing weather, so it’s migraine season once again for me. Combine those two things, and you get little reading time for Cora.

On the bright side, my To Be Watched lists have begun to shrink. While reading and hollow-crownclose work have been difficult with migraine symptoms, watching historical movies and TV shows has been a nice way to pass the time (a bigger screen, farther away is less work for my eyes, and much more comfortable to my poor head). My favorite so far? A toss up between the 2009 adaptation of Emma with Jonny Lee Miller and Romola Garai, and The Hollow Crown series with Jeremy Irons as Henry IV and Tom Hiddleston as Henry V.

TBR Challenge

Cora’s TBR Challenge Check-In

Cora Lee

Two months down, fellow readers! How much has your TBR Pile shrunk?

Last summer I picked up a preference for print books, thinking to whittle down my physical store of books before I moved. That trend seems to be continuing, and I think it’s purely psychological now: I can actually see my bins getting less crowded. I’m slightly ahead of pace for the goal I set, too, but we’ll see how long that lasts. With the exception of a snow day, I’ll be teaching every weekday until Spring Break, which will very likely use up any energy reserves I might have. But if my students aren’t too demanding, I might still be able to sneak in a book or two 🙂

TBR Challenge

Cora’s TBR Challenge Check In

Cora Lee

Job_Lot_Cheap_by_William_Michael_Harnett,_1878_(cropped)Okay fellow readers, we’re one month in–have you been a tortoise or a hare?

I seem to have averaged the two. I didn’t do any reading at all over the holidays, and that lag lasted a couple of weeks into the new year (hangover from spending all that time with the family 😉 ). I also made a point to finish a series of new-to-me books I’d started because the first one was so good (the Daughters of Erin series by Laurel McKee, in case you were wondering).

But then I completed a whole book from the old TBR mountain in one day. I also recently started two others that are more historical fiction + romance than just historical romance–the writing style is different, the story is a bit more densely packed, and the cast of characters is larger. These are going to take some time for me to get through, but they’ve both been waiting a couple of years, so the least I can do is give them a thorough read 🙂

How has your reading month been?

Books, TBR Challenge

Cora’s TBR Challenge 2015

Cora Lee

Job_Lot_Cheap_by_William_Michael_Harnett,_1878_(cropped)

In the immortal words of John Lennon, “another year over and a new one just begun”. It’s time (if you haven’t already) to make those resolutions for 2015–including one for your TBR pile.

My TBR Challenge was such a personal success last year that I’m doing it again! 2015 is very uncertain for me–my teaching career is up in the air right now (Will I ever teach again? When? Where? How? If not, what else will I do?), and thus so is my writing time (How much energy will I have to devote to a day job? How will my health hold up? The bills have to be paid, but will I be too tired to do anything else?). So this year’s TBR Challenge is a way for me to take a measure of control in addition to finally reading some of the books languishing on my shelves and Kindle.

I’ve tweaked the rules slightly for this year:

1. How many books from your TBR pile will you read? I’m upping my goal to 18 books this year over the 12 I chose for last year. I have so many books floating around the house that 12 felt like just a drop in the bucket, and I’m hoping to make more headway this time around.

2. How long have your books been waiting? For the purposes of this challenge, the books I read must have been acquired by me or placed on my library TBR list (which is also getting out of hand) before August 1, 2014. This means I can’t buy new books in January and count them toward my TBR Challenge come September–which I found myself doing at least once last year, and kind of defeats the purpose of the challenge.

3. How will you hold yourself accountable? Like last year, I’ll post here once a month to share my progress and see how you all are doing. I found the Goodreads shelf and the dedicated page on this blog were enormously helpful, too. I’m a very visual person and being able to see the collection of books that I’d read gave me a nice sense of accomplishment, which made me want to read more TBR books 🙂

Who will take up this challenge with me? Who will commit to wading through the mountains of books you’ve spent your hard-earned money on, but never read? Leave a comment here or on the 2015 TBR Challenge page with your goal: how many books will you tackle this year?